My Crazy Summer

I'm impressed I'm actually posting before the end of August. Okay, it's the last day of the month, but it's something anyway...

Since my last post:
I discovered that Jul (Diadem Golden Jul) had cancer and was going downhill quickly. I called the vet, had a final grooming session with her, gave her lots of treats, and had her humanely euthanized. She's now buried next to Rho.

Diadem Golden Jul 1973-2010

My photography business is picking up a bit. In the past month or so I've photographed a dressage schooling show, a dog show, a high school senior, a rodeo, and plus sized model troupe after dark at a county fair. I need to get some more equipment soon, especially if I'm going to be doing more after dark and indoor shoots. On my list are one or two good flashes (I'm looking at the 580 Speedlites) and the 24-70 2.8 lens. I'd like the 100 2.8 macro as well, and I may get that first as it's a bit less expensive than the 24-70.


Bahim injured his leg while I was gone one weekend. When I got back, his whole leg was swollen. I cold hosed it that night and gave him some Bute for the pain, and made an appointment for the vet to come out the next day. The vet determined it wasn't broken but probably an infection in his hoof somewhere. She prescribed antibiotics and Bute, cold hosing and stall rest. He was fine the whole day, hosed him and fed him that night and he was in good spirits. The next morning he was dead. I think the infection went to his heart and he died in his sleep. He's now buried next to Jul.

CBA Bahim Shetan 1984-2010

I've been to Bristol twice this year, and it looks like we're going to try to get to closing weekend. We're also planning to go to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival in the next couple of weeks. I'm still hoping to get to the Michigan Renaissance Faire, as I won a family 4 pack of tickets, but I'm not sure when I'm going to get out there. I have until the end of September I think, so we'll see what happens.

I've been lazy and distracted, and haven't been keeping up with my diet and exercise goals. We signed up for a free month at Curves, went for two weeks and stopped going, at first because I was out of town for a few days and SBC 1 wouldn't go on her own. We decided that it wasn't worth the cost membership, because of the trip to town and the atmosphere and such. I got off track with my diet, my weakness for throwback Mountain Dew and burgers may be my downfall. I'm trying to go for salads, but it's tough. I am working more veggies into my meals, and trying to eat more fruit too. I am drinking more water, though, and adding a little lemon juice for flavor.

Weight this morning was 184.3.

Catching up

It's been a while since I've posted anything, so I thought I'd summarize they past few months, and try to post more regularly in the future.

Never had been easier to handle since he got home from the trainer. He leads without being pushy, he picks up his feet without a fight, and I can brush him all over without him being touchy. He's pretty dominant out in the pasture, but I can't really do much until the thaw comes and I can put up new paddocks.

Alex is growing like a weed! At a few months shy of two years he's about as tall as his dam, though a little butt high at the moment. He's such a sweetheart, and leads and stands for the farrier with no problems. I've got his Pinto and Half-Arab registration papers ready to go, I've just been holding off until he's gelded (which should be soon).

Willow's Pinto registration application will be mailed this week, hopefully there won't be a problem with the two choices of name I came up with.

Hope had a pasture incident the other day that had her bleeding profusely from a cut just above her coronet band. When I first saw it her hoof was bright red and I thought she had cut her heel bulb through to the coronet band. I washed and wrapped it and gave her a little Bute and kept her on stall rest for a couple of days. After I unwrapped it, I saw it wasn't as bad as I thought, but I wrapped it again for protection and turned her out. That night, I removed the bandage and let the wound air out. She's doing well, a little sore but healing well. I'm hoping I'll be able to send her out for training this year, along with Faith and Willow.

The older horses are doing well, Sparky especially. She's doing so much better than last year, you wouldn't believe that it was the same horse! She's put weight back on, is more aligned in the hips, isn't laying down all the time, and has a zest for life that was missing last winter though to July.

Jul is 37 this year, and is bright and cheerful and has good teeth. Gem is 31, and doesn't have good teeth like his dam, but eats well anyway and acts like he's a teenager. Tassel is also 31, and seems to be feeling her years, but has a bit of spunk every once in a while. Heather is 30 and energetic, I'm hoping to lose some weight and head off to do some light trail riding with her.

Bahim is 26 this year, and has his issues, mostly with his teeth. He choked in October, and freaked me out. The vet came out and tubed him, and there was so much senior feed that came out. She then floated his teeth, and stated he has no real grinding surface anymore, they're plate smooth, so I have to really watch out for choke. He refuses to eat softened pellets, so he gets Purina Senior which seems to crumble better in his mouth. I have his feed pan close to the ground as well, and that seems to have helped.

Rho is in good weight, though he still needs to be sedated to trim his feet. I just don't know what happened, he used to be really good about it.

Fiesta the Wonder Hinny is doing well, plump and sassy. His hooves have been under control for a while not, no more long feet and rocking back on his heels. It took a while to get to this point, and I'm glad we finally did. He also stands for trims with almost no fussing!

All the others are fine, plump and fluffy and content to eat hay and play tag in the pasture. Hopefully I'll keep up with blogging this year, so my posts aren't always so long!